(Vatican Radio) "Peter and Paul much as they differ from one another in human terms
and notwithstanding the conflicts that arose in their relationship, illustrate a new
way of being brothers, lived according to the Gospel, an authentic way made possible
by the grace of Christ’s Gospel working within them". "Only by following Jesus does
one arrive at this new brotherhood”; this according to Pope Benedict XVI is the fundamental
message of the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul. Emer McCarthy reports Listen:
The
Pope’s focus on communion and brotherhood took on particular emphasis this year, given
the presence of a delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and
the Westminster Abbey schola cantorum. Their plain chants – together with the Sistine
Chapel choir – enriched the liturgy which took place within the cool marble vaults
of St Peter’s basilica. A liturgy which also saw the Pope bestow the pallium upon
40 Metropolitan Archbishops.
In his homily the Holy Father drew attention to
the two giant statues of Peter and Paul that hold vigil over St Peter’s square. He
said : "Christian tradition has always considered Saint Peter and Saint Paul to be
inseparable: indeed, together, they represent the whole Gospel of Christ. In Rome,
their bond as brothers in the faith came to acquire a particular significance”.
“Only
by following Jesus does one arrive at this new brotherhood this is the first and fundamental
message that today’s solemnity presents to each one of us, the importance of which
is mirrored in the pursuit of full communion, so earnestly desired by the ecumenical
Patriarch and the Bishop of Rome, as indeed by all Christians. "
Drawing from
the Gospel of the day (Matthew 16: 13-19), Pope Benedict went on to reflect on the
drama of Peter (and the papacy) " the acknowledgment of Jesus’ identity” not “through
flesh and blood”, that is, through his human capacities, but through a particular
revelation from God the Father".
Pope Benedict said :"Here we see the tension
that exists between the gift that comes from the Lord and human capacities; and in
this scene between Jesus and Simon Peter we see anticipated in some sense the drama
of the history of the papacy itself, characterized by the joint presence of these
two elements: on the one hand, because of the light and the strength that come from
on high, the papacy constitutes the foundation of the Church during its pilgrimage
through history; on the other hand, across the centuries, human weakness is also evident,
which can only be transformed through openness to God’s action."
Finally, Pope
Benedict spoke of "power of the keys" – symbol of the Petrine Ministry a key issue
in the current phase of ecumenical dialogue - to "bind and loose": "The two images
– that of the keys and that of binding and loosing – express similar meanings which
reinforce one another. The expression “binding and loosing” forms part of rabbinical
language and refers on the one hand to doctrinal decisions, and on the other hand
to disciplinary power, that is, the faculty to impose and to lift excommunication.
The parallelism “on earth ... in the heavens” guarantees that Peter’s decisions in
the exercise of this ecclesial function are valid in the eyes of God".
Below
is the official English tranlation of the Holy Father's Homily during Mass on the
Feast of Saint's Peter and Paul. During the celebration the Pope conferred the Pallium
on new Metropolitan Archbishops.
Homily on the Feast of Saints Peter
and Paul
Saint Peter’s Basilica, 29 June 2012
Your Eminences, Brother
Bishops and Priests, Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are gathered around
the altar for our solemn celebration of Saints Peter and Paul, the principal Patrons
of the Church of Rome. Present with us today are the Metropolitan Archbishops appointed
during the past year, who have just received the Pallium, and to them I extend a particular
and affectionate greeting. Also present is an eminent Delegation from the Ecumenical
Patriarchate of Constantinople, sent by His Holiness Bartholomaios I, and I welcome
them with fraternal and heartfelt gratitude. In an ecumenical spirit, I am also pleased
to greet and to thank the Choir of Westminster Abbey, who are providing the music
for this liturgy alongside the CappellaSistina. I also greet the Ambassadors
and civil Authorities present. I am grateful to all of you for your presence and your
prayers. In front of Saint Peter’s Basilica, as is well known, there are two imposing
statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, easily recognizable by their respective attributes:
the keys in the hand of Peter and the sword held by Paul. Likewise, at the main entrance
to the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, there are depictions of scenes from
the life and the martyrdom of these two pillars of the Church. Christian tradition
has always considered Saint Peter and Saint Paul to be inseparable: indeed, together,
they represent the whole Gospel of Christ. In Rome, their bond as brothers in the
faith came to acquire a particular significance. Indeed, the Christian community of
this City considered them a kind of counterbalance to the mythical Romulus and Remus,
the two brothers held to be the founders of Rome. A further parallel comes to mind,
still on the theme of brothers: whereas the first biblical pair of brothers demonstrate
the effects of sin, as Cain kills Abel, yet Peter and Paul, much as they differ from
one another in human terms and notwithstanding the conflicts that arose in their relationship,
illustrate a new way of being brothers, lived according to the Gospel, an authentic
way made possible by the grace of Christ’s Gospel working within them. Only by following
Jesus does one arrive at this new brotherhood: this is the first and fundamental message
that today’s solemnity presents to each one of us, the importance of which is mirrored
in the pursuit of full communion, so earnestly desired by the ecumenical Patriarch
and the Bishop of Rome, as indeed by all Christians.
In the passage from Saint
Matthew’s Gospel that we have just heard, Peter makes his own confession of faith
in Jesus, acknowledging him as Messiah and Son of God. He does so in the name of the
other Apostles too. In reply, the Lord reveals to him the mission that he intends
to assign to him, that of being the “rock”, the visible foundation on which the entire
spiritual edifice of the Church is built (cf. Mt 16:16-19). But in what sense
is Peter the rock? How is he to exercise this prerogative, which naturally he did
not receive for his own sake? The account given by the evangelist Matthew tells us
first of all that the acknowledgment of Jesus’ identity made by Simon in the name
of the Twelve did not come “through flesh and blood”, that is, through his human capacities,
but through a particular revelation from God the Father. By contrast, immediately
afterwards, as Jesus foretells his passion, death and resurrection, Simon Peter reacts
on the basis of “flesh and blood”: he “began to rebuke him, saying, this shall never
happen to you” (16:22). And Jesus in turn replied: “Get behind me, Satan! You are
a hindrance to me ...” (16:23). The disciple who, through God’s gift, was able to
become a solid rock, here shows himself for what he is in his human weakness: a stone
along the path, a stone on which men can stumble – in Greek, skandalon. Here
we see the tension that exists between the gift that comes from the Lord and human
capacities; and in this scene between Jesus and Simon Peter we see anticipated in
some sense the drama of the history of the papacy itself, characterized by the joint
presence of these two elements: on the one hand, because of the light and the strength
that come from on high, the papacy constitutes the foundation of the Church during
its pilgrimage through history; on the other hand, across the centuries, human weakness
is also evident, which can only be transformed through openness to God’s action.
And
in today’s Gospel there emerges powerfully the clear promise made by Jesus: “the gates
of the underworld”, that is, the forces of evil, will not prevail, “nonpraevalebunt”.
One is reminded of the account of the call of the prophet Jeremiah, to whom the Lord
said, when entrusting him with his mission: “Behold, I make you this day a fortified
city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings
of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against
you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to
deliver you!” (Jer 1:18-19). In truth, the promise that Jesus makes to Peter
is even greater than those made to the prophets of old: they, indeed, were threatened
only by human enemies, whereas Peter will have to be defended from the “gates of the
underworld”, from the destructive power of evil. Jeremiah receives a promise that
affects him as a person and his prophetic ministry; Peter receives assurances concerning
the future of the Church, the new community founded by Jesus Christ, which extends
to all of history, far beyond the personal existence of Peter himself. Let us move
on now to the symbol of the keys, which we heard about in the Gospel. It echoes the
oracle of the prophet Isaiah concerning the steward Eliakim, of whom it was said:
“And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and
none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open” (Is 22:22). The key
represents authority over the house of David. And in the Gospel there is another saying
of Jesus addressed to the scribes and the Pharisees, whom the Lord reproaches for
shutting off the kingdom of heaven from people (cf. Mt 23:13). This saying
also helps us to understand the promise made to Peter: to him, inasmuch as he is the
faithful steward of Christ’s message, it belongs to open the gate of the Kingdom of
Heaven, and to judge whether to admit or to refuse (cf. Rev 3:7). Hence the
two images – that of the keys and that of binding and loosing – express similar meanings
which reinforce one another. The expression “binding and loosing” forms part of rabbinical
language and refers on the one hand to doctrinal decisions, and on the other hand
to disciplinary power, that is, the faculty to impose and to lift excommunication.
The parallelism “on earth ... in the heavens” guarantees that Peter’s decisions in
the exercise of this ecclesial function are valid in the eyes of God.
In Chapter
18 of Matthew’s Gospel, dedicated to the life of the ecclesial community, we find
another saying of Jesus addressed to the disciples: “Truly I say to you, whatever
you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven” (Mt 18:18). Saint John, in his account of the appearance
of the risen Christ in the midst of the Apostles on Easter evening, recounts these
words of the Lord: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they
are forgiven: if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn 20:22-23).
In the light of these parallels, it appears clearly that the authority of loosing
and binding consists in the power to remit sins. And this grace, which defuses the
powers of chaos and evil, is at the heart of the Church’s ministry. The Church is
not a community of the perfect, but a community of sinners, obliged to recognize their
need for God’s love, their need to be purified through the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ sayings concerning the authority of Peter and the Apostles make it clear that
God’s power is love, the love that shines forth from Calvary. Hence we can also understand
why, in the Gospel account, Peter’s confession of faith is immediately followed by
the first prediction of the Passion: through his death, Jesus conquered the powers
of the underworld, with his blood he poured out over the world an immense flood of
mercy, which cleanses the whole of humanity in its healing waters.
Dear brothers
and sisters, as I mentioned at the beginning, the iconographic tradition represents
Saint Paul with a sword, and we know that this was the instrument with which he was
killed. Yet as we read the writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles, we discover that
the image of the sword refers to his entire mission of evangelization. For example,
when he felt death approaching, he wrote to Timothy: “I have fought the good fight”
(2 Tim 4:7). This was certainly not the battle of a military commander but
that of a herald of the Word of God, faithful to Christ and to his Church, to which
he gave himself completely. And that is why the Lord gave him the crown of glory and
placed him, together with Peter, as a pillar in the spiritual edifice of the Church.
Dear
Metropolitan Archbishops, the Pallium that I have conferred on you will always remind
you that you have been constituted in and for the great mystery of communion
that is the Church, the spiritual edifice built upon Christ as the cornerstone, while
in its earthly and historical dimension, it is built on the rock of Peter. Inspired
by this conviction, we know that together we are all cooperators of the truth, which
as we know is one and “symphonic”, and requires from each of us and from our communities
a constant commitment to conversion to the one Lord in the grace of the one Spirit.
May the Holy Mother of God guide and accompany us always along the path of faith and
charity. Queen of Apostles, pray for us! Amen.